86 IiIFE OF
lier stay in Paris in August ISO-i, tho siuldeu news
arrived that the groat traveller, already moimuHl us
lost with but faint doubts of tho truth of the roport,
had arrived in the Garonne with, all him AnuTK'tui
treasures. The despatch which brcwght tlio infcolli-
geuce from Bordeaux to tho National InHt.it. ute of
Paris was immediately forwarded by tho secretary to
Madame von Humboldt., and as groat aĞ hor tfnrpruse,
was Alexander's astonishment when ho, hastening
from Bordeaux to Paris, found his sister-in-law t hor of
while he had anticipated not being able to Ğeo his
brother and his family in Rome till tho comivuvuce-
ment of the following year. As ho had the intention
of settling in Paris., for no town presented BO many
scientific and personal advantages sis it, and ho
also only thought at first of arranging his collections
of completing his manuscripts to make them tho
foundation of -a comprehensive literary travelling*
history,, it was most agreeable for him that MB bro-
ther's wife, who was expecting her confinement in the
autumn of 1804, was remaining in Paris till tho com-
mencement of the following year. Then she proposed
returning to her husband,, who was in the meantime
spending- a happy solitude in Albano, commencing
and completing the long planned translation of the
Agamemnon of JEschylus, and inviting in September
Ms friend Wolff, the editor of Homer, to share MB
charming solitude at Albano,, and enjoy with him
the beauties of nature in intellectual intercourse.
In Paris, Alexander von Humboldt really lived
only in the recollection of his great journey., as lie
worked daily with Bonpland, the faithful companion
of his joys and dangers, at the regulation of liis col-
lection, and he maintained a lively iutercourwo with
the most eminent scholars of the capital on tho suc-
cess of his journey. Many of these eminent men,
such as Cuvier, Qay-Lussac, Arago, Vauquelin,
Oltmann, Laplace, and others,, were actively engaged
in the literary arrangement of his stupendous mate-
riaJs, Nearly a year elapsed before Humboldt found